


One More Slice of Apple Pie

by Kdin



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Established Relationship, Homophobic Language, M/M, New School, Science Bros, Third Wheels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 02:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1671269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kdin/pseuds/Kdin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for this prompt: Stucky high school!au where Tony just got kicked out of private school for making a teachers look stupid because he knew more.</p><p>Tony Stark hates to be a third wheel and Steve and Bucky are a corny couple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One More Slice of Apple Pie

**Author's Note:**

> Features punk!Bucky and geek!Steve, served with a side of science bros.

"You know what?!" He said to himself, shoving his balled up clothes into a suitcase. "I don't care what Howard thinks anymore." Tony couldn't remember the last time he had referred to him as 'father'. "I earned this."

Earlier that morning he was high on coffee sitting in class with his hair looking messier than ever. Bruce was sitting on the desk next to him, his notes were impeccable as always and so was his curls. Professor Weissinger was talking and talking and talking in a remarkably monotone way, that made Tony (and possibly, everybody else) think he was in church. Tony heard the voice muffled by his own drifting but he braced himself on the desk edges, until he heard a hell of a blunder.

"You are wrong." Tony called out as serious as he could.

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry." Tony cleared his throat. "You are wrong, sir."

"Please, enlighten me."

"It will be my pleasure." Tony stood up and tried to fix his uniform's tie.

"Tony, no." Bruce muttered his plea.

"At temperatures approaching absolute zero the moment of inertia changes and the solid becomes a supersolid which clearly appears to be a previously unknown state of matter. So before you continue to try to teach something to this bunch of idiots make sure you have your facts straight." And he sat down leaning his head and smirking a bit. "No offense, Bruce" Tony turned his head only to find his friend massaging his temples and exhaling exasperatedly.  
_____________________________

"Expelled?!" Tony sat at the director's office not for the first time but the last. "You have to be kidding me."

"Mr. Stark, this is the twentieth time a professor complains of your attitude towards them."

"Fine! You can take your filthy and pretentious philosophy and stick it up to your anus!"

_____________________________

Now he had to pack his stuff and leave, he felt like the eliminated girl from America's Next Top Model.

"That mouth of yours is going to take you places, Tony." Bruce said as he was helping him gather his books.

"Yeah? Where?"

"First stop is public school. Next one is the trash."

"Very funny."

He was right, though. They wouldn't accept him at any other private schools if his last name wasn't Stark.

"What did your folks say?" Bruce was showing actual support to him, it was one of the best feelings.

"They're disappointed as usual." Tony felt like throwing away some of his CDs at that moment, he called it self-directed anger. "I'm going to attend a public school."

"Well, the real morons are going to be there,"

"Don't be stupid, Bruce." He took a box from beneath his bed and emptied all the love letters inside directly into the trash can. "There are morons everywhere."

When all his belongings were packed an there was a fancy car with strangers assigned as drivers, Tony had to leave a friend behind.

"This is not the last time, you listen?" Tony actually pulled Bruce in for a hug.

"I really hope not."

Bruce's glasses were cloudy from one or two tears that slipped from his eyes when he saw the Lincoln latest car leave at the gates.

_____________________________

"My father is the sweetest, richest man on America and I'm walking through this dirty hall with my stupid locker that can be opened ridiculously easily"

Once his books were on his hands he slammed the locker door shut in frustration, then kicked the one below and banged his forehead against his locker's door.

Nobody saw that, nobody cared.

There were no more expensive uniforms, no more fancy sports clubs, no more Bruce Banner and Tony Stark making things blow up in a daily basis.

 _Fulfill your penance, keep your mouth shut, don't make friends._ Tony kept repeating that to himself as he sat on his unassigned desk. Probably the teacher would make him go to the front and introduced himself to the class and honestly he was too upset to embarrass himself in front of fifty six teenagers. He sunk in his seat and prepared himself for a day of disgrace.

Everyone around him was loudly talking and laughing and saying very, very stupid things, even when the professor was in the classroom.

To his surprise, he wasn't asked anything. The teacher just "gave his class", talking some basic bullshit.

Tony decided to sit in silence, something he didn't do often. The boy next to him caught his attention. His glasses were similar to Bruce's, thick and big. He was passing a little note to the boy in front of him, but he refused to accept it, he grabbed his hand instead, they were not even making eye contact, they stayed holding hands for a good thirty minutes, how did they even accomplish that?

Tony rolled his eyes when they finally let go off each other.

He focused on the open book on his desk, the words were just plastered there. His father's words, on the other hand, were stuck on his head, the only time he got to spend time with him was to being told how disappointed he was.

Tony tried to convince himself that he was good enough, just not to his father.

All of sudden, the blond guy was talking to him.

"Hey? Do you want to team up with us for the assignment?"

"Huh? What assignment?"

The other chuckled softly, he was uh… good-looking.

"C'mon, Steve. He doesn't want to work with us." The boy that had been holding hands with Steve turned his whole body to face him. One side of his head was shaved, the other had brown hair, left grown to his chin.

"Psht, Bucky." Steve waved a hand at Bucky's face and looked back at Tony with his blue eyes full of hope.

"Sure, why not."

One of the things Tony Stark loathed for real was being left out. It was always about him, it had always been. At his old school anyone would be flattered to have to opportunity to work with him.

Now he was the second choice.

But it had to be that way.

Later that day Tony sat by himself on the cafeteria table, only to look up ten fucking seconds later and find Bucky and Steve making out, sitting very close to each other two tables from Tony.

And he couldn't stop looking.

Steve had to break the kissing to grab some air and when he did Bucky looked at him with lustful eyes.

_____________________________

When Tony got home his father was reading some newspapers on his favorite chair.

"Awful day, Howard. Everything is terrible."

Howard answered: "Hm."

Tony was happy to receive a phone call from Bruce after dinner. If there was something on this dying earth that could keep him sane was Bruce.

"How was first day?"

"Shut up, man. Don't go all 'son' with me."

"… That bad, huh?"

"I'm going to become no one!"

"Dude. You're already you, isn't that enough?"

Tony definitely lived for Bruce Banner.

_____________________________

Day 002.

Steve was nice.

Bucky? Not so much.

They met in the library, where Steve took some books to the desk, Bucky spent the whole time texting on his phone and Tony was the only one who actually worked.

He didn't really mind, though. It's a much simpler task working on his own.

Steve looked over Bucky with a frown on his face but left him be."So where are you from?"

Tony didn't interrupt the typing on his laptop. "I didn't move."

"Oh, sorry. I assumed that."

"Steve, leave him alone, he's working." Bucky's voice was harsh and deep, maybe it was related to the fact that boys like Bucky wouldn't usually wake up at 7AM. He sighed as deep enough to fill those big lungs. "I have training with the team." He gathered his stuff, backpack on one shoulder, a red star stamped on his left sleeve, and pressed a kiss on top of Steve's head. "I'll see you 'round, babe."

"Work hard."

Silence, silence, some more silence to fill in the awkward silence.

"I don't think your communist friend likes me, so why don't we end this now? Don't worry, I'll finish the assignment."

Steve tilted his head a little, this morning his hair was combed and nice. "No, no, we'll get around, I promise. He's a little bitter at first but he doesn't hate you or anything."

Meanwhile, on a football field, a wide-shouldered brunet yelled into the sky.

"Wrong!!"

____________________________

Day 004.

"I have to head off to PE." Steve literally pouted at Bucky.

"Are you going to be alright?" Bucky rested his forehead on Steve's, taking both his hands with his.

"Sure, I'll be fine."

"Do you have your inhaler with you?"

Steve nodded, Bucky said 'okay' and Tony was looking at how blue the sky was and how disgusting humans were.

____________________________

Day 009.

Steve wasn't a strong hunk or anything. He was tall, yes. Taller than Tony, (everyone was taller than Tony) but he was skinny, his cheeks always flushed with pink, he looked anything but menacing.

So when Tony saw a bully grabbing Steve's collar, slamming him on a wall and calling him a faggot, he wanted to stand up for him, and he would've done it. But Steve had it under control.

He stood there, with the other students, watching how good Steve was kicking ass, defending himself mostly, but kicking. ass.

Bucky should have been there.

Bucky would have killed them.

_____________________________

Day 011.

Apparently Bucky knew how Steve stood up to bullies. There was no way to stop him, Steve had spirit.

But when it became too much, when both their lockers were graffitied with insults, Bucky had enough and he ended up running across the hall, screaming as loud as he could: "I am gay for Steve Rogers."

It was a glorious day, for Steve, obviously. For Tony, it was a very interesting social phenomenon. Everyone that crossed ways with him would proudly say that too.

"I am gay for Stevie pants!"

"I am, too!"

"We love you, Rogers!"

Steve was in tears.  
_____________________________

Day 019.

Steve's smiled very brightly. It was just the way he smiled.

In chemistry Bucky volunteered to be Tony's lab partner, which ended up being not so bad because Bucky had the spirit of an evil genius, with the evil (check) and he was surprisingly bright. (eh, check.) It surprised Tony that Steve had a different partner, maybe they were mad at each other that day? But then why didn't Bucky have a partner?  
Tony turned the situation on his mind a million times and couldn't find an answer, only achieved to remind himself that he left Bruce lab-partnerless. That day Bucky and Tony got an A+ on chemistry and Steve gave them a double thumbs up.

Hiding when it was lunch time seemed like the best option for Tony, he obviously wouldn't admit he was hiding, however. First he lurked the cafeteria, looked at Steve share his lunch with Bucky, a nice home-made one that was especially made for two, and then head off to the library and examine the most appealing books. He hated the national school lunch program and didn't carry food from home since he was six years old.

_____________________________

It turned out he fell asleep on the sitting on a library desk, his face resting on Stephen Hawking. He apologized to him in his mind and prepared to leave. It was raining outside, the sky had an apocalyptic dark color. He fished his phone from his backpack as he walked on the empty hallways and cursed when he realized it was 5PM already. He had nine missed phone calls from home,  _Howard would be furious._  
As he went outside the rain got worse and he couldn't hear the steps behind him.  
  
Bucky was carrying two backpacks and a gym bag, he shielded his head from the rain with his jacket's hood. "Hey, Stark." They started trotting on the sidewalk. "Taking the subway?"   
  
"I guess I am now." Or maybe he could take a bus to Milwaukee and start a new life. "Training?"  
  
"Yes." They got into the subway station, Tony ran a hand through his wet hair, "How about you?"  
  
"I was finishing the assignment and..." They climbed into the train. "stuff."   
  
"Sure." They sat next to each other, the wagon was surprisingly empty. "So, is your destination far from here?"  
  
"I wish." Tony took his phone out and decided not to call back.   
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"Nothing, my father has scheduled to kill me tonight before dinner."  
  
Bucky said nothing for a while. Tony assumed the silence as empathy, magnified? Maybe? Howard had only hit Tony as a child, belt in hand and his mother arguing in the back. "You know?" Bucky finally said, kindly trying to make eye contact with him. "I'm heading off to Steve's right now, and his mom is really nice, they love visitors." It was a ridiculous idea, but Tony appreciated the gesture.  
  
"Thanks." He smiled sadly. "Maybe some other day."  
_____________________________

 _How does Howard find time to yell at me for 2.16 hours and doesn't find time to ask me how my day was? HOW?_  
  
Tony slammed the door of his room behind him, Howard had sent him to sleep before dinner was ready. He finally changed his wet clothes and realized his body was colder than he thought. His stomach growled and he remembered himself and Bruce ordering pizza online and sneaking it inside at 2 in the morning. He smiled at the thought.  
  
After building a laser cutter with the stuff from an abandoned box in his closet, Tony finally gave up on everything, himself mostly.   
He imagined Bucky eating a delicious made-with-love dinner with Steve.  
... and Bucky listening to so many kinds of music with Steve.  
... and Bucky playing X box with Steve.  
... and Bucky making out  _with Steve._  
  
_I have a problem._  
  
Howard ordered to switch off the house's power and Tony couldn't talk to Bruce that night.  
_____________________________  
  
Day 020.  
  
That morning Steve came to Tony and gave him a lunch box with a slice of homemade apple pie in it.  
_____________________________

Day 021.  
  
After-dinner-Skype-calls with Bruce were longer and longer every time.

"Tell him what you feel." Bruce suggested, so easily, multitasking and all, sharpening his pencils and scribbling angrily on a sheet of paper.

"What do you have a hole on your skull?!" Tony threw all the trash and dirty laundry that laid on his bed to the floor. "Number one, I don't have feelings. Number two, Steve is happily dating a bulldog."

"You're overreacting."

"You name it, I tell you the truth."

"I'm pretty sure Steve won't mention it to Bucky,"

"Oh what do you know?!" Bruce remained silent to give his partner a chance to calm down. " _What am I?_ A spoiled piece of shit that when it sees something it likes he wants to own it?" Tony pressed his face against his pillow.

"I thought you were against slavery." Bruce took a mouthful of air. "Besides, you are an splendid friend, even if you can't see it. You know I'm no easy-going guy, yet you hang around with me everyday." That made Tony uncover his face. "I applaud that." 

That night they kept talking until they fell asleep at three in the morning, still connected on Skype.

_____________________________

Day 025.

"Do you want to come to the football game?" Steve asked Tony after class. He was holding hands with Bucky and Bucky looked really uninterested.

"I don't… think that…" Tony glanced over Bucky, bullies had picked on him before but they had never looked like him.

"I'll be with you, Bucky will play."

"Oh."   _Shit. No. "_ Okay."

_____________________________

Day 030. ( _Friday)_

A bunch of students sat listening to class because it was 8 am and everyone was half asleep. Tony sipped at his coffee, it was only warm now but his body demanded caffeine, whatever that didn't turn him into an alcoholic just now.

He took a larger sips.

Clicking his pen only annoyed the others, so he abstained and scribbled on the back of his notebook. He ripped the piece of paper and gathered his stuff and headed off to get more coffee. 

_____________________________

Before chemistry Tony remembered the little note on his pocket and while passing through the hallway, he slipped it in Steve's locker.   
Steve's lab partner was absent that day and he ended up working with Tony and Bucky. They were left off with a very simple experiment, the professor had left the classroom for a while and both Bucky and Tony understood each other so well when it came to these terms. They accomplished their task while Steve supervised that everything was right.  
Tony knew that heating the reagents they chose to experiment with would end up in a thermal explosion but he had made everything blow up once or twice on his life, it had never got out of control, so they kept on it. Steve asked them to stop one second too late.   
  
The whole class covered up and paralyzed, the beakers had blew up and there was a smoking liquid on the table.  
  
"What have you done?" Steve wiped the reagents from his neck where it had jumped.   
  
"Calm down, it's nothing." Tony ruffled his hair to let the small pieces of glass fall.  
  
"What do you mean with calm down?!" Steve let Bucky guide him to the safety shower to get hot substance off, apologizing as he turned the water on. But Steve continued to give Tony his best pistol eyes.  
  
"Stop freaking out, okay? I'll pay for it."   
  
"We're getting in trouble!" Steve continued and Bucky gazed at him worriedly. It was as if he hadn't noticed he was soaking wet in front of the class yet. "You don't seem to understand but this is important for me and now we won't be able to get the credits for this subject and at least that matters to me!"  
  
"Yes we are, shut up already."  
  
"You shut up!" Bucky stopped looking out to Steve's well-being to growl at Tony.  
  
The teacher came in the classroom and when she saw everything, she sent Steve and Bucky to the infirmary  _immediately._  Then asked for the culprit, Tony stepped forward and he was sent to the director's office.  
_____________________________  
  
It was midnight when Tony used his phone to Skype call Bruce.  
  
"I fucked up."  
  
Fifteen minutes later Bruce didn't know whether to laugh or be concerned.  
  
"You fucked up big time."  
  
"I know." Tony grunted against his pillow. "They made Howard come over. That really screwed me already, like they could have called him! NO. Make the greatest CEO ever come over to tell him his stupid son hurt a student and made shit blow up."  
  
"So is Steve alright?"   
  
"I think so. I couldn't see him after that." Tony got on his feet to turn off the lights, Bruce kept staring at the very dark screen. "Not that I wanted to, either. The freaking expression of revulsion on Steve's face made my stomach turn."  
  
"You got suspended one month, you should find a way to apologize."   
  
" _Oh no."_  
  
"What?"   
  
"I left a note on his locker."  
  
"What did it say?"   
  
"That I kind of liked him and whatnot." Tony grunted again like he was about to die of a horrible disease. "Man, I fucked up real bad... I really hope he hasn't seen it. Anyway, the football game is tomorrow night. "  
  
"Apologize then, I'll go with you if you want."   
  
"Yeah,  _NO?!"_ Bruce rolled his eyes. "I'll open his locker and rescue that stupid note. Then, I'll apologize."  
  
"Whatever works for you, Tony."  
_____________________________

Day 031.  
  
Probably Steve wasn't expecting to meet Tony that night but he had to gather courage to go anyway, Bruce helped a lot.  
  
There was a wild crowd going  _wilder_   when Bruce and Tony arrived, even in the hallways they could hear all-of-muffled-it. Tony was pressing his ear on Steve's locker, trying to get the next number of his combination, it had only been twenty seconds.  
  
"Are you sure you don't want to leave it where it is?"  
  
"Yes, I am sure."  
  
"You won't be seeing him in a month."  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"He won't make you talk about it."  
  
Tony stopped sharp and squinted at Bruce, "Are you best friends with Steve?!"  
  
"C'mon. You'll get it out of your system."  
  
"Damn it, Banner." Bruce merely shrugged. "Fine, let me just..." He unlocked it and grabbed a pen and scribbled another note with a even smaller piece of paper that was already there. "Alright, let's go."  
_____________________________  
  
The game had almost finished when Tony and Bruce went to find Steve.  
  
"Do you see him?" Bruce scanned the crowd trying to match the description with a guy.  
  
"Uh, yes." Tony sighed. "I'll be back in a minute."  
  
"Go get him, tiger." Bruce mocked and smiled at him.  
  
Tony stood next to Steve awkwardly, his old lab partner was with him and Steve hadn't even noticed him, he had to tap a finger on his shoulder. When Steve turned his head his expression went unreadable.   
  
"May I talk to you for a second?" Tony felt his gut wrench. Steve simply nodded. They walked past Bruce, away from the noisy ambient and ended on the staircase.  
   
Steve had a bandage on his neck and when Tony saw it he felt stung by guilt while the other remained undecipherable.  
  
"Listen, I need you to know that I'm really sorry for what I did to you and for what I said to you and generally for existing around you and Bucky." Tony looked away and held his breath once more. "I think that is all. I'm sorry I'm wasting your time, too."  
  
"You are not wasting my time."  
  
"Okay, so I'll take off." Tony turned on his heels and cursed his parents for making him an abnormal social being.  
  
"Wait."   
  
_Oh please no, don't make it worse._  
  
"Yeah?" Tony looked at him directly in the eyes, it was so evident that Steve knew how miserable he really felt, he looked like he was about to cry but he achieved to repress it very well.  
  
"I am sorry you got suspended."   
  
_To be honest I don't think I'll ever come back._  
Tony nodded and walked away to meet up with Bruce. He felt Steve's glance on him every damn second.  
  
"How did it go?" Bruce had entertained himself watching the game, he held a pretty smile on his face.  
  
"I am getting my feelings surgically removed."  
  
They stayed there, mostly because Bruce wanted to give Tony enough time to settle down.   
  
The game ended, Bucky's team won and Steve ran to him, he looked so happy for him. Bucky wrapped his arms around him and lifted him off the ground for a bit. It started raining again but it didn't matter. Steve kissed Bucky and both smiled into it.  
  
"Stop, you're going to get sick." Bucky told him lovingly, "Let's go inside."  
  
"Sure." But Steve kissed him again under the pouring rain.  
_____________________________  
  
The next morning Steve had caught a cold but he went to school anyway, he went directly to his locker with lazy feet. Bucky stood behind him for a minute before he went noticed.  
  
"I told you you would get sick."  
  
"And I said sure." Bucky chuckled and handed Steve a thermos with chamomile tea in it.   
  
"I'll see you in class, punk." Bucky leaned in to peck his lips and left.  
  
Steve found two notes inside his locker; one simply said  _I'M SORRY. IGNORE OTHER NOTE._  
And the other  
  
_HEY_  
_I KNOW YOU'RE DATING ANOTHER LAD BUT I LIKE YOU_  
_YOUR SMILE IS SO STUPIDLY BRIGHT IT MAKES ME SMILE BACK_  
_THAT IS ALL_  
  
_PD. THANKS FOR THE APPLE PIE_  
  
_—YOU KNOW WHO I AM_


End file.
